Artificially limiting rises in house prices will do more harm than good September 15, 2013 ECONOMISTS should be humbled by Friedrich Hayek’s famous plea: “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.” If only government and central banks – and those who lobby them – realised how little good came from their proposed interventions, and how [...]
Letters to the Editor – 16/09 – House price cap, Startup survival, Best of Twitter September 15, 2013 House price cap [Re: Industry calls to limit lending won’t fix our bust housing system, Friday] A policy of the state intervening to cap house prices will strangle our fragile growth and exclude more people from home ownership. In economics, supply must meet demand. We need to fix the supply issues through less red tape [...]
Bernanke’s successor will have more than monetary policy to worry about September 12, 2013 US FEDERAL Reserve watchers have taken a break from trying to figure out when the Fed will cut off its bond-buying programme to speculate about who will succeed chairman Ben Bernanke when his second term finishes at the end of January 2014. We haven’t had the opportunity to pick a Fed chair since before the [...]
The Long View: The key to effective action? Don’t view the world in those nifty shades of grey September 12, 2013 SHADES of grey are fashionable – and not just because of those kinky books. If there’s one ideal that the modern intellectual class likes to celebrate, to praise in students and respect in authority, it is a fine, discriminating eye for picking out the full spectrum of grey on any issue. Monochrome thought is for [...]
Self-driving pods and 3D printing will be the real challenge for Royal Mail September 12, 2013 TWENTY years ago, as the web came into existence, it was obvious that Royal Mail would be carrying fewer personal and business letters by now, that there would be a vast rise in junk mail and another huge increase in parcel deliveries thanks to online buying. All of those expectations have come true. After a [...]
Letters to the editor for 13 September 2013 September 12, 2013 Financial taxes [Re: The unlawful EU financial transaction tax should rightfully be abandoned, yesterday] I oppose the EU’s Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), but why are we ignoring the fact that we already have a domestic 0.5 per cent levy on share trading in the UK? Stamp duty is five times the rate of the FTT’s [...]
Crisis in Syria: The US has no room for error in a new world of many powers September 11, 2013 TWO NOTABLE failures – US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia – have dramatically transformed the Syria crisis in recent days. Kerry, who could not beat George W Bush despite the Iraq War, may have committed one of the more beneficial rhetorical stumbles of all time. Living up to his reputation for intellectual overconfidence [...]
The unlawful EU financial transaction tax should rightfully be abandoned September 11, 2013 YOU DON’T often hear people praising lawyers. But this week, many across Europe will be singing from their hymn sheet, following a leaked opinion by the Legal Service of the Council of the EU (CLS). A CLS report has concluded that key elements of the proposed EU financial transaction tax (FTT) are unlawful. The question [...]
German elections will not prompt new wave of Eurozone integration September 11, 2013 THE WORLD is looking to Germany, as its 22 September elections fast approach. The question on everyone’s lips is whether the next German government – the principle paymaster of Europe – will commit to a decisive deepening of the Eurozone. This, some believe, could haul the continent out of crisis. The answer, however, is no. [...]
Letters to the editor – 12/09 – Tesco in the US, Pensions crisis, Best of Twitter September 11, 2013 Tesco in the US [Re: What Tesco’s US debacle tells us about the wisdom of markets, yesterday] Few UK companies can stand up to the price competition and, significantly, service levels of US retail. Even new car dealerships are open up until 10:30pm at night in America. Where else in the world could you find [...]